Commentary
FAO Still In Denial Over H5N1 In Wild Birds
Recombinomics Commentary 13:39
August 11, 2008
“The detection of a new avian influenza virus strain in Africa raises serious concerns as it remains unknown how this strain has been introduced to the continent,” warned Scott Newman, International Wildlife Coordinator of FAO’s Animal Health Service.
“It seems to be unlikely that wild birds have carried the strain to Africa, since the last migration of wild birds from Europe and Central Asia to Africa occurred in September 2007 and this year’s southerly migration into Africa has not really started yet,” Newman said.
“It could well be that there are other channels for virus introduction: international trade, for example, or illegal and unreported movement of poultry. This increases the risk of avian influenza spread to other countries in Western Africa.”
The above comments from the FAO press release indicates conservation groups and FAO are still in denial about the role of wild birds in the spread of clade 2.2 H5N1 into Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, which began over 3 years ago, when the Qinghai strain of H5N1 migrated to Russia and Mongolia in the summer of 2005, and then spread into approximately 50 countries west of China in the 2005/2006 season.
A year later, in the summer of 2006 a sub-clade (the Uvs Lake strain) was identified in a massive wild bird outbreak at Uvs Lake in Mongolia near the Russian boarder. This clade 2.2.3 strain was subsequently reported in South Korea and Japan at the end of 2006, followed by Kuwait at the beginning of 2007. Although the Uvs Lake strain of clade 2.2.3 was not reported in central Europe in late 2006 and early 2007, and Illaria Capua declared European wild birds as being H5N1 free at the Options VI meeting in Toronto at the end of June, 2007, widespread wild bird outbreaks were reported in the Czech Republic, Germany, and France over the summer, followed by clade 2.2.3 throughout Europe and the Middle East at the end of 2007 beginning of 2008.
Therefore, migration to east Africa was expected. H5N1 sequences from Egypt in the 2007/2008 season acquired clade 2.2.3 polymorphisms, indicating the sub-clade was migrating through the region. Although clade 2.2.3 was not reported previously, the surveillance of H5N1 in Africa is poor and most outbreaks appear in domestic poultry, because wild bird deaths are not well monitored.
Thus, the presence of clade 2.2.3 in resident birds is below the surveillance radar, as it was a year ago in Europe. However, this H5N1 eventually causes outbreaks in poultry, which the FAO and consultants describe as having a mysterious origin, as they try to link to trade.
After three years of transmission and transport of clade 2.2 H5N1 by wild birds throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, it is time for FAO to revise its press releases and increase surveillance in dead wild birds, since the assays and techniques of the conservation groups do not have the sensitivity to detect H5N1 in live wild birds.
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